


They Who Witnessed History

by Amethyst_Moon



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Apprentice - Freeform, Gen, Reincarnation, Teaching, Warring Clan Era
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-13
Packaged: 2018-08-29 09:36:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8484346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amethyst_Moon/pseuds/Amethyst_Moon
Summary: Tobirama had always been her favourite Hokage. (Dreams and wishes were all very well and good, but pragmatism won the war.)





	1. I: SUN CHILD

**Author's Note:**

> This will not, generally, be in chronological order. PART I: SUN CHILD refers to Tsukino's life, and PART II: MOON CHILD is Youko's.

Infant minds couldn’t process memories. It wasn’t because of birth trauma or that they slept all the time, it was just inherent. So when Tsukino lived and died and lived again, there wasn’t some panicked awakening, just -

 

_Oh. I’ve seen this before._

 

And she had, in a life long gone. The boy with his bowl cut and dreams, the boy with silver hair and ruthless practicality. Even the boy with spikes and a fan as long as he was tall, though she never met him.

 

But they weren’t boys, not really, not since their first battle and first death.

 

Some days the realities mixed, the boy-river-peace overlapping the man-trees-clan head. Others, it was jarring to think _no, child soldiers are wrong, peace is right_ , and in the dark of the night she wanted to scream because she had been bred for war but remembered peace and not the illusion of it. She wasn’t afraid to admit that she was scared. Of Madara, Tobi, the Kyuubi, if she even lived that long. Gods, Zetsu. Kaguya the Moon Princess. It was a miracle that she lived long enough to remember at all. No, scratch that, it was a miracle that she knew enough to remember now. Iva, her past life _(what even, how is this my life)_ , was always more of a video game fan than a manga reader; Mass Effect came easier than Naruto ever did.

 

Civilians died as easily as ninja, easier even. So she trained as well as she could and stumbled and soaked knowledge in the way only one who knew disaster was coming could. And if not for the constant threat of death (no, maybe even in spite of it), the research fascinated her. Never had the phrase ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’ been more truthful than the day she discovered seals. It was just writing. Writing that could do everything jutsu could do and more. How could she not be excited? The man who would invent the Hiraishin was right there; she saw him every day!

 

But as he studies progressed under Aunt Kiyomi, Tsukino became frustrated. Every time she hinted at learning the ninja arts, she was shut down. Hard. They said that girls were soft, had no place on the battlefield, must be kept at home and protected. And every time she heard some variation of _useless_ , her heart burned. Iva would have said that they were a product of their time. It was cold comfort - no amount of understanding would get her the skills she needed to survive past her fifteenth birthday.

 

“I want to learn,” she said.

 

“Go practice your sewing,” they said.

 

Though her eyes throbbed with anger, she did. And when the chance came to ‘borrow’ a few seals, how could she not?

 

The next month was spent copying them and sneaking out to test them. Two months on, Tsukino was ready to tear her hair out from the lack of progress. Sealing was literally ink in writing, it shouldn’t be this hard, all it did was change-

 

Wait.

 

Tsukino’s eyes widened. Why _couldn’t_ they? Seals interacted with the world according to the instructions contained in them.

 

She focused, pulling up a thread of that warm river she assumed was chakra to her hand. If this worked, her chances of real training shot up ten thousand times; if it didn’t, she was going to look like an idiot.

 

Hand pressed against a convenient tree, Tsukino imagined the explosive seal blooming beneath her fingertips, chakra-ink spreading in dark formation. It would be even and perfect and _fuck_ she didn’t think this through, there was an explosion going off _right there right now_ -

 

She dived to the ground. Shrapnel from the blast flew in all directions. Not able to avoid them all, a burning sensation stretched across her back when a particularly big piece of bark scored a gash. The tree had a hole blown straight through, and if it wasn’t mokuton-grown, it probably would have fallen over already. Speaking of...

 

“What happened here?”

 

Yes, the illustrious clan head and his white-haired brother had arrived. That little explosion must have been heard clear across the compound. Oops.

 

“I was practicing sealing, Hashirama-sama.” And despite the lecture she expected to get, Tsukino had to bite down on a grin. She might be grounded for life, but how could it compare to this? When the secret of sealing was literally the power of denial and telling reality to fuck off.

 

“Show me,” Tobirama growled.

 

She picked up a stone from the ground. Concentrating again, this time she thought of what she wanted - _explosion, timer, radius, heat and light and fire fire fire_ \- and told the world, _this is what will be_. Her will in visual form took hold even as the rock left her hands. It flew, and at the peak of its height her chakra snapped out. A beautiful explosion burst into existence before their eyes, fire-bright.

 

Tsukino laughed. _The power of denial!_ Iva’s memories had certainly never mentioned this!

 

“Sealing without a teacher is dangerous. You will not do so again,” Tobirama said. Tsukino bit her lip and made herself look down. The man remained unimpressed. “Tomorrow. Dawn. Main gates. Don’t be late.”

 

He quickly stalked off, leaving Hashirama and Tsukino to stare after him. “...Um,” she said. What. What just happened.

 

“He likes you!”

 

Tsukino slowly turned her head. Tobirama’s face hadn’t even twitched, how did Hashirama conclude that he liked her? She hadn’t really believed it, but Iva was right: Hashirama was crazy. Charismatic, but crazy all the same. Shaking her head, she decided that it was enough excitement for the day. Tsukino _out._

 

That night, she quietly bandaged her back and burned that tunic. It was a sacrifice, but having her parents find her clothes soaked in blood would be a million times worse. The wound would be a reminder, she decided, of her first real success.

 

The next day, Tsukino obediently dragged herself from her warm cocoon. For such a bloody world, its pre-dawn glow made it seem ethereal. She thought she might’ve understood why Hashirama fought for peace so much.

 

As sounds of her household waking up found her, Tsukino loped towards the gates. They might have let her go, but then maybe not, it was hard enough to avoid their many (many, many) efforts to get her to accept her fate as a broodmare. Not in so many words, of course, but women weren’t exactly common on the battlefield.

 

A door squeaked open. _Shit_.

 

She put on a burst of speed that didn’t stop until far out of sight, skidding to a stop in front of an impassive Tobirama. He raised an eyebrow. Tsukino beat down the irrational urge to blush. She did nothing wrong, dammit!

 

“Reporting for duty, Tobirama-sama!” She chirped. She swore she saw his eyebrow twitch. Served him right for setting the meeting up for dawn. _Dawn._

 

“Come,” he said, walking to the training grounds. “Any sealing is too useful to waste. You must catch up with your peers in other areas.”

 

Was he saying what she thought he was? He was! Tsukino could hardly believe her luck. Her parents wouldn’t dare deny the clan head’s brother if he wanted her trained!

 

Though she couldn’t deny her excitement, it was tempered by knowledge of the future. Surviving until the founding of Konoha would be a miracle.

 

_Civilians die as easily as ninja. Easier even._


	2. I: TEACHINGS

So when he said she needed to catch up to her peers, Tsukino did _not_ think Tobirama meant _I’ll be the one beating you to an inch of your life_. Nope. But apparently he did. And boy, was he a stern taskmaster! By now, she was sure that her muscles would never feel relaxed again, and neither would her mind. For all that he was serious, and his training methods were annoyingly unorthodox - being pelted at all hours of the day by whatever he could find did wonders for her spatial awareness. Sometimes it was more dangerous than others. Like now.

 

“Tobirama-sensei!” she yelped as she twitched backwards. Something flashed by her nose in less time than it took for her to blink to slam into the wall. “That almost took out my eyes!”

 

No answer came except for the man himself appearing and pulling the kunai out with an easy flick of his wrist. He whipped out glare #3, or what Tsukino liked to call the I-am-surrounded-by-idiotic-peons-you-are-all-beneath-me glare of doom. Or just you-idiot for short. It saw a lot of usage around his brother.

 

Sometimes, she almost expected him to whip out a chameleon and say,  _"I'll make you into a great mafia boss, dame-Tsukino."_ His teaching methods certainly matched.


	3. I: WOLF SUMMONS

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Trigger warning:** mentions of kidnapping

The tundra seemed never ending, ice spreading as far as the eye could see. And neither of them were at their full strength. How long ago was it that she and Hiroki left the Senju gates for this mission? Gods, so long that she had forgotten. It was supposed to be a simple in and out retrieval, dangerous only because of the item’s value and how far they had to travel, but now they would die here, leagues from home and with no one to mark their passing.

 

Hiroki shifted in his sleep, and Tsukino turned considering eyes on her clansman. She always had _that_ option floating around the back of her mind. Oh it was repulsive, of course, and she didn’t want to do it, would never even consider wanting it. But she set aside her morals once again, and looked at the situation with an uncaring god’s eyes. It was a zero-sum equation.

 

Fact: they had retrieved the objective and only needed to return to the compound.

 

Fact: neither of them had food left, and chakra exhaustion was setting in.

 

Corollary: barring starvation and exhaustion, they were both healthy.

 

Fact: the Senju territories were at least a month’s travel away.

 

Fact: at this rate, the both of them would die within a week.

 

Fact: Tsukino was more important than Hiroki could ever hope to be. Against the student of the Clan Head’s brother, who figured out how to apply seals by touch even before that, an orphan descended from nobodies with no outstanding skills could never compare. It was the ruthless calculus of war, as one of Iva’s games once said.

 

So.

 

An up and coming Seals Mistress, or cannon fodder.

 

It was no question at all, really.

 

Tsukino pressed a blade against Hiroki’s throat. _The ruthless calculus of war,_ she thought again, slitting his neck open and beginning to carve up her cousin’s ten year old body. _Ten billion die here so twenty billion there can live._

 

The meat from Hiroki’s body let her carry on for another two weeks, by which time she had made it to the tundra’s edge. She was almost home free. Then, unexpectedly, on the edges of her senses came indication that ninja were closing in on her position. Her options were short, as the chances that they were friendly was beyond low. Tsukino weighed the scroll in her hand. It was a small thing, and not at all what she had expected for the summoning contract for a Greater Summoning Clan. And it was invaluable. And yet.

 

And yet, she was almost certain to die here - therefore leaving the contract, therefore giving enemies of the Senju another weapon. That was... not ideal, to say the least. There was no one to pass it onto, and no way for she herself to save it.

 

What was that quote again? It went something like, _in war, victory._

 

Tsukino gathered lightning chakra into her hand.

 

_In peace, vigilance._

 

She touched it to the scroll, gently, almost, as if the chakra were not dense enough to kill a man.

 

_In death, sacrifice._

 

Hostile ninja showed up in her line of sight even as her world tilted and she succumbed to exhaustion. Tsukino’s last glimpse of life was the crumpled, utterly destroyed contract scroll, against a backdrop of grass and a squad of ninja.

 

What an apt saying.

 

She opened her eyes. Now, this wouldn’t usually be strange, but Tsukino could have sworn that she had died on that icy plain. Her eyes slid over to her left, where Tobirama was lounging against the wall.

 

“They found you at the compound gates,” he said without looking up from his documents. “You were collapsed and nothing could wake you up.”

 

She bit her lip and squashed down the urge to coo. He was definitely worried. Blinking slowly, she tried to get her thoughts in order. Unless she had suddenly developed the ability to teleport while in a coma, someone had to have saved her. But who? What few allies the Senju had who would help if they met were nowhere near the Land of Frost, and in fact that danger had been the whole reason she had been sent instead of someone who needed the experience. “How long was I out?”

 

“Six days. Today’s the first of November.”

 

No. No, that couldn’t be right. She had left for Frost with Hiroki just after New Year’s, and a month there, a month back, and a week for the actual mission should have meant that it was May at the latest. Something was very wrong. “...What was my last mission?” she asked, almost afraid of the answer.

 

Tobirama gave her a weird (worried) look but obligingly reminded her of her patrol ‘a week and a half ago’ that she accompanied Touka on. A week and a half, according to him, but Tsukino had the impression that it had happened more than two months prior. Now, she may not have been a genius, but she didn’t need to be one to see the difference between two weeks and two months. Someone, somewhere, had fucked up. And at the rate it was going, it was probably her.

 

Soon after, Tobirama told her to get some rest and left to do clan duty things. Paperwork, probably.

 

Tsukino meant to obey, she did, but as soon as her teacher left, a scroll appeared next to her head. And yeah, okay, maybe she should’ve reported it or taken it to someone who knew what they were doing when it came to genjutsu or contact-based poisons, but damn if it didn’t look like the contract for the Greater Summoning Clan in her - dream? Illusion? Whatever it was. That she definitely, one-hundred-percent was sure had destroyed. Opening the scroll gave no answers, either, because it only had one line: _you who has been tested, come home._

 

When smoke obscured her vision and she felt the distinct experience that was body flicker but not, Tsukino wasn’t even surprised anymore. But she did know that Tobirama was going to _kill_ her.

 

After the smoke cleared, Tsukino saw, once again, the icy tundra she had died in, once upon a time. Only this time, she was surrounded by wolves of all sizes. From the oldest elder to the smallest pup, it seemed as if they had spilled out of the earth to judge the human in their midst. Not a few seconds had passed before they parted like the Red Sea to reveal the biggest of them all, easily half again as tall as the biggest house in the Senju compound at its shoulder.

 

“You who has been tested,” he rumbled, “has come. Do you accept the role of Summoner of the Wolves, of the Greater Summons, and all it entails?”

 

Tsukino, working off Iva’s trivia knowledge, very carefully didn’t bow or block her neck or abdomen in any way. She was acutely aware that submissive behaviours would be her only chance at getting out of this alive. Instead, she tilted her head sideways and looked down, away from any eye contact. “What are your terms, Lord Wolf?”

 

“Only the chakra from your call, and complete honesty in our dealings.”

 

It seemed too good to be true, honestly. And in this world, that happened far too often for her to not be suspicious. “Forgive me, Lord Wolf, but I must ask: why do you choose me, of all those in the world?”

 

He didn’t look offended (as far as she could tell from an animal’s expression, at any rate), and in fact looked mildly approving. Somehow. “You who has been tested, conducted yourself with consideration and logic. In the face of failure of all, you culled that which could be put to better use elsewhere; in the face of death or destruction, you had the will to make objective decisions. You who has been tested, has passed.”

 

Wolves had always been a point of fascination for her. As Iva, she had spent half her childhood soaking up knowledge, and a good majority of it was about these magnificent canines. They had represented freedom and strength to the little girl who had neither. How could she resist? “I humbly accept this gift and pledge myself as Summoner of the Wolves, of the Greater Summons, with all that it entails.”

 

“I am Command-From-High-Mountains of the Tougen Wolf Pack, and I accept you as our Summoner.”

 

Then the biggest wolf took one step to his right, revealing an old wolf with more white than grey in his coat. With the old wolf in the lead, every one started howling to the glimmering full moon. One would have thought that it would sound harsh, but they’d be wrong. Well, no, only in the sense that it wasn’t quite the right word - it was strong, certainly, and more than a little bit of showing off, but they harmonised surprisingly well and not one was off key. Then, between one chord and another, a huge scroll, similar to Jiraiya’s, shimmered into existence. Tsukino padded over as the old wolf nosed it open.

 

It had few names, and in fact there were no other living summoners. She took a deep breath. It wasn’t like she was likely to regret signing it, but - there was no going back from this.

 

The song reached its climax, and she knew what to do. Tsukino bit a finger, and brushed her name in the contract with firm strokes, then bloodied her hand and pressed her other fingers below it.

 

It was done.

 

With a final call of victory, the boss summons concluded their howls.

 

Silently, Tsukino stepped up to his snout. This was beyond risky, but she had to know. Her curiosity would be nagging at her until she asked. “Command-From-High-Mountains, that mission to the tundra with Hiroki-kun didn’t actually happen, did it?”

 

He laid down to rest his head on his forepaws, and promptly got covered in his playful pack for his trouble. “No, Summoner. Many of the Tougen Wolf Pack specialize in the illusory arts or earthen disciplines. But that it did not exist in this reality does not mean it did not exist in yours. Your decisions are yours.”

 

Her chest clenched. Those decisions had included cannibalizing her pubescent cousin.

 

“Many of those whom we tested thought we value loyalty,” Command-From-High-Mountains said. “We do, but it is not the most important. We are not dogs. We honour survival and the will to do whatever it takes so that we and those closest to us may live. Strength can be trained. Will cannot. You, Summoner, showed both.”

 

Eating another human was one of the greatest taboos of society.

 

Maybe sensing her wavering, he growled, “ _Whatever_ it takes.”

 

And, strangely, that made it better.

 

Meanwhile, Tobirama was going back to his student’s room only to find that she was precisely _not there_. This didn’t fill him with confidence.

 

(His throat was tight.)

 

He spread his senses as far as he could. The compound and its surrounding country lit up like a bonfire, each and every living being a beacon to him. Yet none had the distinctive _crackle-snap_ Tsukino carried like a second skin. Only her faint residue remained, floating around her room as if she had disappeared without a trace.

 

Kidnaped, then, however they got past the entire compound. Chakra suppressors perhaps.

 

Spinning on his heel, Tobirama prepared to raise the alarm and look through every inch this side of the continent if necessary. They had vastly underestimated his range if they thought they could get away with this. Already, he began focusing on patrols that weren’t where they were supposed to be, given that they had three minutes at most to extract Tsukino and gap it. Unless they somehow had absolutely insane speed without massive chakra flares, they shouldn’t have even made it out of the compound.

 

However, just as he began to call for backup, Tsukino blazed across his senses once more, exactly where he had left her. Then, she slammed into his back before he could react. Tobirama turned in her arms. She was shuddering, shaking, laughing and crying at the same time. He was bewildered. Never had she initiated such intimacy, even her parents said it, so what could bring this on? Cautiously, as if she would run at first chance, Tobirama stiffly rested an arm across her shoulders. Slowly, her sobs petered out until she was only muffling heavy breathing against his chest.

 

His patience was rewarded with answers.

 

“...The wolves accepted me as summoner.”

 

Tobirama placed his other hand at the base of her head and pressed her closer.

 

“As far as I can tell, they caught me in a genjutsu a week ago when I was at the gates. They tested me, I passed, and now the Tougen Wolf Pack has a new summoner.”

 

There had to be more to the story. A test in the ‘exam’ sense couldn’t have traumatised his unflappable student this much.

 

“The genjutsu was...” she took an unsteady breath. “Harsh. It tested the will and resolve of potential summoners by giving a lose-lose situation and asking which they thought more important. I...” Here she clenched her eyes closed even more, breathing in the comforting scent of the one who picked her up from certain death by broodmare and gave her a chance to _do_ something. He was... not her _god_ , it certainly wasn’t blind faith, but her leader and teacher and brother. He knew the horrors of war better than she ever could. For all his dreams of peace, Tobirama knew what people could and would resort to to live another day - so different from his brother, who only saw lines that you couldn’t cross no matter what. If not him, then who could she trust? “I chose my life over my morals and the mission over my life. Tobirama-sensei, how can I look at him now?”

 

Slowly, gently, Tobirama maneuvered them so that he sat against a wall, with Tsukino curled on his lap and her head resting at the hollow between his neck and shoulder. He had no clue how to deal with this. Tsukino had always been independent, but now he was abruptly reminded that she hadn’t even lived two decades. How did one take care of a child's mental breakdown? “Mission report.”

 

So she told her story. And Tobirama listened.

 

From her easy trip to Frost to the disastrous journey back. From bickering with Hiroki to slaughtering him in his sleep. From accepting the mission to destroying both the objective and her life so the Senju wouldn’t have to face yet another weapon wielded against them. And when she spoke of her death, sounding so accepting, as if it were a given, Tobirama clutched this _child_ even tighter. Because his little apprentice wasn’t even resigned - she thought her death was just another fact of the world and not worth the regret. As if she couldn’t comprehend why it was _not right._


	4. I: MARKINGS

One day, after roughhousing with her wolves, Tsukino had looked thoughtfully at Tobirama’s red stripes, and touched her own cheeks. A thought took hold in her mind. It was - not a mark of ownership, definitely not, but - loyalty, maybe. A declaration of intent. That before clan, before family, she would choose Tobirama. Even if no one realized what she meant.

 

(Besides, Iva had always admired Sesshoumaru.)

 

Two days later, she showed up with two black stripes on each cheek.


	5. I: INDUCTION INTO ANBU/ROOT

Tsukino suddenly clutched the trailing edge of his sleeve as he turned to go. “Sensei,” she said, quietly, “be careful how you handle ROOT. Erasing emotions never turns out well.”

  
Tobirama nodded, left, and wondered how she knew about the group he hadn’t even established yet.


	6. I: END

Tsukino dropped behind his chair in a shower of leaves. Tobirama barely twitched, though he knew that his ANBU guard startled yet again. That girl seemed to make a game out of it, and she won every time.

 

He frowned when she made no move to speak up. “Tsukino?” She twisted her fingers into his cloak, a gesture he hadn’t felt since his brother founded the village. He reached back and ghosted his hand over her hair. From there, she wound her arms around him and buried her face in his back. Now he knew something was wrong - Tsukino was not a tactile person on a good day, which was what allowed their relationship to not crash and burn in the first place. Resting his hand on her head, Tobirama repeated her name.

 

“...Ne, sensei, you know... I didn’t do it for Konoha. Everything I did, I did it for you and no one else.”

 

They spent so much time together that people thought she was his apprentice, despite his genin team, but sometimes - like now - Tobirama had no idea what she meant.

 

She must have seen it on his face, because she stepped back with a lingering touch. (A soft weight slipped into his pockets, not important now.) With a smooth motion, the mask hanging at her hip moved to rest on her face. Wolf stared back at him.

 

“For the village,” she murmured, suddenly the consummate shinobi. “Long live the king,” she said, louder, and Tobirama knew her mouth would be twisted wryly, though he didn’t know what she meant. A Hokage was hardly a king. If anything, the Daimyo was.

 

But before he could question her, Tsukino leapt out the window. He could sense her pinballing around the village before flipping over the wall, running in the direction of Iwa.

 

Tobirama slipped whatever was put in his pocket out. It was a note, written in Tsukino’s sharp hand.

 

 _Senju Tsukino was not supposed to exist,_ it read. _Or at least she wasn’t supposed to have such a big role. But I can’t regret it, Tobirama-sensei, not when I grew fond of this world and didn’t much care about changing history. It was never recorded that Senju Tobirama had students besides his one genin team. But I’m fine with that if it means you’ll live past your allocated time. Hiruzen will make a fine Hokage, don’t you think?_

 

It didn’t really say anything, but he had an uneasy feeling. Tsukino was more than capable, he trained her himself. And yet...

 

Why did it feel so much like a goodbye?

 

Four days later he had his answer and wished he didn’t. An hour after he read the report, the Nakano River lost half its water and five new training grounds appeared where before there was forest.

 

Hiruzen found him in the middle of decimating another tree. The man’s face was locked down harder than ever before, even more than that time Koharu somehow managed to destroy a month’s worth of completed paperwork.

 

“...Sensei?” he asked cautiously.

 

Tobirama’s grip tightened briefly on his sword. With his other hand, he fished out a scroll that he threw to Hiruzen.

 

His eyes scanned it as he was taught, memorising as he went. “ _ANBU Wolf was found in quadrant 13 near the Land of Lightning border, dismembered into 18 pieces..._ Oh.” There wasn’t much to say. Tsukino-senpai...

 

“Kinkaku,” his teacher snarled. Hiruzen read further.

 

“ _Kumogakure group Kinkaku suspected as perpetrators, five bodies identified to be part of group were found within 20m of ANBU Wolf’s presumed site of death_ ,” he muttered. “ _Unknown Kinkaku agent carried orders to eliminate Nidaime Hokage._ ”

 

Hiruzen didn’t really understand Tobirama and Tsukino’s relationship. He knew that she studied under him even before the Shodaime built Konoha because of her sealing, and just never really stopped, but not much else. And she was always insisting that she wasn’t his apprentice. No one believed her. She might as well have been, even without the title.

 

Given Tobirama’s reaction to news of her death, Hiruzen was disinclined to believe her too.

 

Life moved on, but Hiruzen suspected that his teacher didn’t, not completely. Until the end of his days, he would wonder if Tobirama sacrificed himself not to save them, but to join her.

 

For the next year, paperwork in the Hokage’s office remained at an all-time low.


	7. II: MOON CHILD

Ever since birth, Youko was an odd child. All manner of dogs flocked to her, and she loved them in return. And, one day, she inked two black stripes onto each of her pale cheeks.

 

But then, being born into war (again), her quirks were overlooked in favour of rushing her through the Academy and out into the battlefields. Her prodigious skill did her no favours in giving a peaceful life (she didn’t want one).

 

Youko rose through the ranks, one by one: genin, chuunin, then disappearing into ANBU. Though one of the younger operatives in Konoha history, she had little trouble keeping up. In fact, her superiors reported that she excelled especially in judgement and logistics, if merely average in combat skill, and their only caveat was that her hand signs were strangely archaic and resembled those in use around the last Shinobi War.

 

Somehow that lead to her outpost being attacked. Okay, so it wasn’t her outpost per se, it was just a rest stop between mission and village, but she was there and known for being territorial.

 

It went something like this: the war was picking up speed; Iwa hated Konoha with a vengeance; and they got wind that the Yellow Flash would be at this tiny outpost. Turned out, he wasn’t due for another two days, so they decided to slaughter anything that moved for their trouble.

 

Now Youko was scrambling to keep up with people who were actually promoted because they could fight. See, the thing about being a logistics-based ANBU sought for good snap judgements was that she was mostly sent for recon and assassination - in other words, no drawn out fighting. As much as her mask stated otherwise. All the knowledge in the world didn’t make up for her scrawny ass body. Her only saving grace was her sealing, which were in fact paid in knowledge and time, rather than any physical prowess. As a result, the previously underground outpost was now an exposed crater, and any Iwa infiltrators unlucky enough to be caught in the blast were so many pieces of blood and bone.

 

Youko sighed. Or she would have, if she hadn’t spent the last thirty years training those reactions out. Iva’s life and memories were barely a trickle. These enemies weren’t even that good, certainly not for someone raised back before Villages were a thing, but there were a lot of them. Some genius had assigned four squadrons to this trip to nowhere. Four! Overkill against their poor outpost skeleton crew and useless against the Yellow Flash. And for a Minato with ducklings to protect, it was going to be a bloodbath. For them.

 

If, that was, she left any for him.

 

The barest touch of skin on skin, and another enemy dropped where they stood. Fitting, for her Bat mask - death on silent wings indeed. Seals were useful for more than just explosions, however beautiful and necessary they were. It was also just about the only thing that let her stay alive on the front lines. A kid’s body in the thick of fighting: not cool.

 

A kunai swept past her face (three-bladed, bigger than normal, oh he’s here early), making her jump back from her opponent.

 

“Scared?” he taunted.

 

Youko remained silent. What use could it be to speak to a dead man?

 

Before he could react, yellow light flashed behind him, revealing Minato who summarily slit his throat. She waved a casual hand while finishing off the last Iwa nin stupid enough to sneak up on her. He had nothing on Tobirama-sensei.

 

Three small ninja dropped onto ground level, making Youko stifle a twitch. That hair was so much like Tobirama-sensei’s. It had to be a cruel coincidence for the Hatake family to share the exact shade of silver.

 

“Resupply in the base,” she bit out as she bandaged her injured thigh. One of his team, the girl, approached with hands glowing green, so Youko nodded her permission. As the medic healed her, she continued, “I’ll return to Konoha with you.”

 

Minato nodded shortly, then instructed his team to set up a perimeter before heading into the rubble to salvage what he could.

 

The girl leaned back with her hands spluttering out. “All done, ANBU-san. It needs light duty for the rest of the day.”

 

Youko nodded.

 

Further away, Obito leaned over what was left of the outpost they were supposed to relieve. “Whoa!” he exclaimed. “The whole thing’s collapsed! Hey Bakashi, what do you think did this?”

 

Kakashi barely paid him any mind, instead checking the area for threats like ordered.

 

Youko stood, dusted herself off, then headed for the nearest body, sealing it in a body scroll. Then the next, and the next until they all had a home in a scroll headed for T&I. Any kekkai genkai they could extract would be their problem.

 

When Minato jumped out of the crater a few seconds later, jounin and ANBU looked at each other for a brief second before she signalled that she would give command to him. The man then turned, directing his students in their first go at covering the existence of a whole outpost, leaving Youko to get ready for their run back to Konoha.

 

Soon they had packed up the remains of the ambush and were well on their way home.

 

Youko hummed under her breath as she ran alongside Team Minato. They were the catalyst for the future, she remembered that much. The Father, the Teacher, the Traitor, the Sacrifice. And the Kannabi Bridge incident. What a mess that was. She wondered if she could get herself assigned to Grass then. They had to know to destroy the bridge somehow, right?

 

Looking at them now, it was hard to believe the legends they would grow into. The Fourth Hokage. Sharingan Kakashi. Tobi, scourge of the Shinobi Alliance. And the pivot, Rin, the Three-Tailed’s Host who pushed Obito into madness. And they were all brats. She knew that this arrogant toerag would become the longest-serving ANBU in existence, with zero team fatalities, but knowing and seeing were very different things.


	8. II: CHUUNIN EXAMS

Neither Youko nor Tsukino were natural chakra sensors, never mind Iva, but it would be impossible to spend as long as she did with Tobirama, the greatest sensor to have ever lived, and not pick up on a few tips. His chakra, at least, was easy for her to pick out.

 

So when it flared up decades after his death, you bet she abandoned post to head straight for it. What was the village in the face of her people?

 

She ran straight past every fight breaking out around Konoha, even the three-headed giant snake, less oblivious and more not caring for the calls of help around her. Ignoring the ANBU stationed around the barrier, Youko darted into the building, then slapped a hand against the roof. Ink webbed outwards, consumed a moment later by deafening explosions. She jumped upwards and outwards, using her creations as cover to position herself on the roof. Ninja looked down not nearly as much as they looked up - not a mistake Konoha nin made as much, after Iwa devastated them with their Hiding Like a Mole techniques - and so, neither did Sound’s barrier cover below.

 

Everyone, therefore, was surprised when a person emerged from the smoke, slamming into the Second Hokage, with a cry of, “Tobirama-sensei!”

 

“Oh-ho! Got yourself an admirer, little brother?”

 

Tobirama spared a moment to glare at his brother before returning to the woman in his arms. In fact, she seemed rather familiar, especially reminding him of someone he lost late in his reign... “Tsukino?”

 

It was. The girl (woman, now, and how is she alive) tilted her face to him, showing off a visage vastly different from the one he remembered. But chakra didn’t lie. Everyone had their own signature, and it never changed; some who were more whimsical had thought it linked to the soul.

 

She reached up to take his face in her hands, lowering him so their foreheads touched, nothing threatening in her posture, and whispered though all could hear - “I never thought I’d grow so fond of this world. Without you, I think I would have gone back to the Void, either by the Uchiha or by my own hand. So - thanks, Tobirama-sensei, for giving Senju Tsukino a purpose even though she shouldn’t have existed.”


	9. I: LIGHTNING

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This happens sometime after I: TEACHINGS but before I: WOLF SUMMONS

Chakra saturated the air above Tobirama’s hand, and water droplets gathered there.

 

It was significantly harder than it would have been had he a water source nearby, but it was good training this way. Tsukino had to know what he could do if they were to work together. Yes. He wasn’t showing off, no of course not, why would you think that?

 

(If her wide eyes and evident awe were reward enough on their own, he didn’t say a word.)

 

Tobirama then went on to instruct her in finding and using her own chakra, explaining meditation and later exercises.

 

Tsukino obediently closed her eyes, and her chakra slowly smoothed out from her usual storm.

 

It was rather like what yoga might have been like, she thought, without the movements. Controlled breathing. Objectively, there was nothing foreign in her system that could be teased out - because chakra wasn’t foreign, it was as intrinsic to her being as blood. However. Her seals used chakra, obviously. And, looking closer, it wasn’t a warm river at all but a sparking current. It was electricity, liquid lightning, one wrong move and it would consume her as surely as her opponent.

 

And yet, lightning was the best nature she could have asked for. As the student of Tobirama - Tobirama, known for his mastery over suiton, who would draw water out of thin air in a desert - and expected to one day stand at his side, what could be better?

 

Iva’s memories of school really proved themselves here. Did she not get warned, time and again, not to stand outside in storms? To never touch power sockets, especially with wet digits? Even living bodies relied on electric signals, the world was full of electromagnetic fields. Lightning was so much more than lightning, it was electricity and electrons and energy itself.

 

Not to mention conductors. Oh the possibilities! Pure water was an insulator, true, but it was just about impossible to get anyway, here in this medieval-like world. No, contaminated water like suiton was perfect for her purposes.

 

“Mwahaha... Mwahahahaha!”

 

Tobirama slowly edged away from his evidently insane student. As she devolved into evil chuckling, he was already twice as far away as he was, and still going strong. Tsukino turned a wide (deranged) grin on him. Tobirama did not flinch. At all. Nope.

 

“Tobirama-sensei!”

 

“Yes...?” Oh gods, she was leaning closer. Her grin, if possible, got even bigger. Tobirama hadn’t even been this unnerved staring down a group of ten Uchiha.

 

“Your suiton. Show them to me!”

 

So she had water-natured chakra. He could deal with that. It was his specialty, after all.

 

Wordlessly, he formed a whip made of water and aimed it at a suitably far away shrub, and all was going well until she  _ stuck her hand into his water what was she doing.  _ If he had any less control, they would have been soaked through. As it was, the whip shuddered and took out a branch. Tobirama looked to his student with a reprimand on his lips, only to stop and stare as  _ something _ sparked from her limb and along the water.

 

Not water natured, then.

 

Later, when she calmed from her bout of mania, Tsukino explained her reasoning, and Tobirama had to admit that he had no idea what she was talking about, though her logic made sense. Not that he would let her test her newly discovered lightning chakra on him or their cousins (had to watch her for a few days to make sure she listened), but it couldn’t be that hard to find some animal destined for the dinner table that they could appropriate.

 

Tsukino, for her part, made plans. All those big-scale ninjutsu might be forever beyond her, but it wasn’t like they were a requirement to kill people. When the heart itself used tiny electrical impulses to keep beat, how easy would it be to just nudge it out of time? A drop of chakra and she could probably simulate a heart attack. The brain, too. Everything used those signals.

 

But even she couldn’t predict how infamous she became, as a rash of mysterious deaths followed her from battlefield to battlefield, ninja collapsing where they stood with no discernible cause. Eventually, they gave her a name: the White Lady, for the way she flitted in Tobirama’s wake and her trailing white ribbon, hanging from her hair to hip.


End file.
